Chapter Forty-Three
Jean-Luc was not going to die of that damn virus. Claire wasn’t going to let him.
The thoughts ran through her head on repeat as she sprinted through the labyrinth of hallways, searching each room for the other hostages. They had to be here somewhere, and she guessed he’d keep them sequestered away from his test subjects. Maybe they were in a room over by her lab…
It made sense. He’d want them closer to Akeso than the viruses.
She skidded around a corner and nearly came face to face with one of Ostermann’s Stepford thugs standing guard outside the open door of the lab.
He raised his weapon and let out a shout that was more surprise than an order.
She still had the sux in her pocket. She dipped a hand in, closed it around the remaining vial, but changed her mind. Throwing the vial at him wasn’t going to do anything, and she wanted to keep it as a backup plan. He wasn’t going to kill her. Ostermann needed her too much, and these guys were too brainwashed to disobey his orders. She dropped the sux back into her pocket and slowly lifted her hands.
The goon motioned for her to go into the lab. Exactly where he shouldn’t want her to go. Because, out here, she was helpless, but in there, she had weapons at her disposal.
Hands still held in the air, she edged past him. Audric’s body still lay where he had landed, eyes wide open and staring.
She had to push the guilt out of her mind, because she was about to take another life.
She slipped closer to the workbench, where the random bottles she’d taken from the cupboard still sat. There had to be something she could use…
There. Yes.
Sodium azide. The deadliest drug to ever help save lives. It had many uses from airbags to pest control to a preservative, but accidents abounded with the stuff because it reacted with everything. Depressed researchers had been known to use it to commit suicide. She just needed a moment of distraction…
The radio on the man’s belt squawked with rapid-fire German. He reached for it and she saw her chance. With one hand she twisted off the cap of the sodium azide. With the other, she snagged a respirator and held it to her face as she flung the bottle in his direction. The white crystal powder hit him in the face and he dropped the radio. She twisted to grab a beaker of water she’d left on the bench and threw it at him. He howled when the water made contact with the powder on his skin and clawed at his face with both hands. He tripped over Audric’s body, tumbled to the ground, and began to writhe, screaming in pain.
Claire took precious moments to pull on coveralls, boots, and gloves to go with her mask. She gathered the most flammable substances in the lab and dumped them on the floor, the workbench. She hesitated before dousing her files—her stomach twisted at the thought of losing years of work. But it had to go. It all had to go. She couldn’t risk Ostermann salvaging any of it. She upended a bottle of ethanol on the files and picked up a lighter, but stopped short and looked at the cabinet with its refrigerated section. What if Ostermann had stored her remaining dose of Akeso there? It could help Jean-Luc.
She took a step toward it, but the thug’s hand shot out and grabbed her boot. He was too weak to effectively stop her, and she shook him off easily, but the interruption cleared her thoughts.
No. Ostermann would keep the last dose of Akeso for himself.
It killed her not to look in that refrigerator, but everything had to go. She walked out of the lab. At the door, she couldn’t help the escaped sob as she flicked open the lighter and a flame licked to life. She watched it dance for a few moments too long, then held out her arm to drop it—and fumbled at the sound of gunfire from somewhere in the facility.
Jean-Luc!
She shut the lighter and whirled around, took a couple steps in the direction she’d come from before she caught herself. He’d wanted her to find the other hostages and get out. There were twenty people trapped in this building somewhere. Once she lit that fire, all of those explosive chemicals would probably collapse this whole side of the building.
No. Destroying the lab would have to wait.
More gunfire echoed through the halls. She flinched but didn’t race toward it—and Jean-Luc—like she wanted to. She ran in the opposite direction, past the lab.
That’s when she heard the banging, like a fist on a door, and the muffled sound of someone shouting in German. She didn’t understand his words, but his fear registered loud and clear. Not one of the guards, then. It had to be Dr. Jürgen Nacht. She followed his voice to a large set of double doors.
She pulled off her mask so they could hear her more clearly through the door. “Hello? Dr. Nacht?”
The banging stopped. “Who’s there?” he asked in thickly accented English.
“My name is Claire Oliver.” Heart tripping, she fumbled for the ring of key cards and started scanning each over the lock. “I’m here to help. Are others in there with you?”
There was some shuffling from the other side of the door, and then another male voice spoke up. He was American, likely born and raised in New York City judging by his accent. “Yes. There are twenty of us.”
“What’s your name?”
“Lucas West.”
“How long have you been here?”
“Maybe three weeks? It’s hard to keep track of time. Some of us, like Jürgen, have been here for months.”
She swiped another card. The lock beeped and the small indicator turned green. She pulled open the door and found herself face to chest with a guy almost as big as Jean-Luc. He had dark hair and a beard that hadn’t seen a trim in a while.
“Thank you.” He released a relieved breath and stepped out into the hall just as more gunshots rattled through the hallways. He glanced toward the noise, then returned his attention to her and studied her coveralls and mask. “What’s going on?”
She ignored the question and peeked through the door as the hostages streamed out. The room was as big as a college gymnasium, set up with cots and a line of shower stalls along one wall. Ostermann was crazy, but it was a cool, level-headed kind of crazy. He’d thought out every detail.
She turned to Lucas since he seemed to be the de facto leader of the group and pulled her mask into place. “Get everyone out. There’s about to be a big explosion.”